What do I do with my kitchen floor?
I am removing 2 layers of old stick-on vinyl tile. Underneath is some adhesive, (I guess). It is sticky and BLACK. I can’t tell if it was put onto plywood or a hardwood floor. If it’s plywood, is it possible there is a hardwood floor underneath? If so, I would like to try to get down to that and use it. BUT if it’s probably nothing good underneath, Im just going to put a new set of stickon tiles on again. SO, first question: Do you think there is a chance the plywood is on top of a hard wood floor?? And second question: If not, then once I get all the tile off of the 12′ x 18′ floor, I will have a huge floor of black sticky stuff. What can I do other than hurry up and lay down some new stick-on tiles using the sticky stuff that is already there-(and what do I do when six ppl in the house need to walk thru and it’s all sticky??) Thanks!
It would be very unlikely to find hardwood under plywood on a kitchen floor — unless of course your kitchen floor is significantly higher than the floor of the adjoining room.
The black adhesive is almost impossible to remove because it will quickly plug up any sander, scraper or mop & solvent you try to use. On one occasion I did lessen the amount of black goo by using solvent to loosen it, then scraping with wood scraps and old newspapers. That didn’t get it all off but did reduce the quantity of the stuff. You will definitely have to get the cooperation of other people in the house in staying out of there while you work.
In this case, I would not try to use vinyl tiles because it will be so difficult to get them straight and snug to one another. I think your only reasonable choices are “battleship” linoleum (so-called because it is thicker and the pattern goes right through the tile) which will absorb most of the irregularities in your floor due to the old adhesive. Ordinary vinyl will look awful in about a month as the irregularities distort it. Fortunately there is a relatively new product on the market that I think will work perfectly in your situation. It is heavy duty vinyl that comes in 3′ x 1′ planks and goes down like wood laminate flooring but with no underlayment needed. It looks like 12″ x 12″ tile and comes in patterns ranging from wood parquet to ceramic look to ordinary vinyl tile look.
I’ve put it down in an entryway that gets really heavy traffic and it has stood up very well for over a year now. I paid about $1.35/sq.ft. at Home Depot but the price may have come down by now.
Good luck,
Honey
first thing to try would be to look under the stove or may be the ref. cut out a small area and you will see if you have hardwood or not. one other thing to look for ,is there any hardwood in the house other rooms. and the age of the house older homes are more likely to have hardwood. if you dont and decide to tile the floor you may want to remove the plywood or if you have the room added 1/4 inch plywood over the old glue. this will give you a smooth service to apply the new tiles. good luck
I ran into this same problem with my kitchen floor. Under the 2 layers of cheap vinyl tile was a beautiful hardwood floor covered with thick black goo. I went to Home Depot and bought a long handled scraper for about $25. It took off about 90% of the black goo. Then I bought some cleaning solvent, $12 a gallon and a bundle of rags, $5. It took about half the solvent and all the rags to clean about 2 square feet of floor and the rags were ruined. I then tried sanding the remaining 2% of the black goo. It gummed up and ruined the sand paper and that’s when I discovered the black goo had penetrated the surface of the hard wood. I did a little 4th grade math and discovered it would be cheaper to replace the hard wood than to clean it.
I went to the Habitat for Humanity resale store and was lucky enough to find some manufactured flooring that my wife liked and matched our existing hard wood floors very closely. It was plastic tongue and groove panels with a wood veneer that was pre treated. This meant no more scraping, cleaning, sanding, sealing, or polyurethane of the existing floor. I just installed the new flooring over the existing hardwood floor and the remaining black goo. It looks great. It came in pieces 4 inches wide and 4 feet long and cost $1 per piece. I bought all they had. After I put down a new floor I used the remaining pieces to build some beautiful bookcases for my home office.
If there is a Habitat for Humanity store near you go there. Their selection is sometimes limited but if they have what you need it can be incredibly cheap. If you can’t find it there then Home Depot has a wide selection at reasonable prices.
If you want a hardwood floor in your kitchen you can find some manufactured flooring in a wide range of styles and colors that is very durable and for a reasonable price.
As for the people walking through your kitchen, tell them to stay out or you will murder them to death. Say it really loud with your eyes wide and bulging and your teeth gritted and it will probably work. If you are not the violent type then maybe you can bribe them with money or food. Food works well with me. I will mow your entire lawn for a large bag of potato chips. Good luck.
the black sticky stuff is probably adhesive from an old tile floor. not the ones you have removed if they are self stick. knowing what’s under the adhesive is only important if you intend on removing it. access to the floor via the basement may provide a clue. if the kitchen floor is level and without holes or depressions you might try laying a single tile to see how it holds. drop perpendicular chalk lines down the center and take a measurement for the first tile so you don’t end up with slivers at the walls. pull out any baseboard molding so any spaces at the walls are sure to be hidden.
if you decide to try to remove the layer with the adhesive, set the blade on a circular saw for a shallow cut ( 1/8 to 1/4 inch ) to make a test cut. i would use wide chisel and some turpentine to try and remove that adhesive from wherever you decide to make the cut. you can increase the test cut an 1/8th of an inch at a time until you can determine the layers you’re dealing with.
If you have floor vents you can pull them off and see the edges of the floor in the hole cut out. You should be able to see the layers of floor underlayment. I would at least pull off the underlayment that has the black sticky stuff on it and replace it rather than scraping it off. And don’t use solvents unless you have real good ventlation. There was a women who blew herself up using solvents doing the same thing. Good luck
Bill A